. . . Ok now show me around the academy, I have forgotten how it looked." Maurya said quickly deviating Ruhi's attention from Mahi.
" Sure papa", Ruhi held Amogha's hand and went inside the huge building.
If the view from the outside was awesome, then the inside was tens times multlipled to it.
There was a structure to take one , up and down to their floors. Ruhi and Amogha stood on it moving to the next floor.
They roamed around the corridors from one end to another. The Students of the academy were all in their classes or training ground along with teachers.
Many parents with their children were already looking at the classes going on. The students who were inside had pride written all over , with people outside starring them in awe since morning.
All of them stood up and bowed seeing the figure of Maurya in the communication device. They knew if someone other than the student was using aura it had to be someone important. Maurya nodded as he told them to continue their classes.
" Ruhi I have some work here. You look around with your mother", Maurya said as the device returned to it's original form.
" Ruhi let's go to another floor", Amogha took Ruhi to the elevator platform.
The building had eleven floors , once a student got accepted , one had to start from ground floor reaching the tenth floor to pass out from academy.
The students had to pass the exams of that floor to go the next. If they failed they had to remain in the same floor learning once again to pass.
The time limit to stay in the academy was ten years. Many talented students completed going up the floors in less than six or seven years. The average student of the academy would pass out in less than nine years.
If one wished to join Maurya's army after going to tenth floor they would be allowed to the eleventh floor. What was there in that floor - a portal that led to another world with not a trace of aura and filled with monsters.
" Ruhi once you become a student you are not allowed to go these upper floors unless you pass the exam of that floor. You should see what's there now only." Amogha said remembering her student life.
They went floor by floor, as they went up students were found more on training grounds than classrooms. The other parents and children had crowded on one of the entrance of training ground on seventh floor since they weren't allowed to go inside. The entrance was so huge, they had no problem in seeing what was happening. A battle between two students was ongoing , one student was using fire , throwing it like an object. Another student was using sand building barriers blocking the fire. They kept doing this for a minute slowly walking around the stage. Both were accurate in attacking and blocking. But suddenly started using their abilities so fast they were running around. This time they were spending aura at rapid rate. The fire ability user started dominating , since the sand ability user was a second late in raising a sand barrier to block the fire getting his leg burned a little. The fire balls came at the sand ability user so fast that he had to stand still to just keep blocking it by keeping the barrier. The shear force impact of the fire made the sand ability user unable to move. The pressure started to build on the sand ability user getting suppressed , that he had to pay all his attention to the fire balls coming from all directions than the one who was throwing it. The fire ability user was running and throwing the fire all around the stage , this time he threw in such a way that the fire made a curve so fast changing it's direction mid air. The sand ability user was barely able to block it since he was just standing still.
This very moment the fire ability user had quickly reached near the sand ability user as his behind was open , due to the barrier getting moved to block the curved fire ball. The fire ability user kicked right at his head so hard , the sand ability user flung to the side as blood dripped from his mouth.
The mana barrier to protect outside students quickly disappeared from the stage indicating the fight was over as killing was prohibited in the duel.
The teacher present there seeing the reactions of the people outside spoke loud , " Level 7 Fire ability user Vs Level 7 sand ability user ends. Winner is fire ability user."
Many children didn't understand the duel as it was over in two minutes. The first minute was very slow, but the next minute they moved fast using their abilities they saw both of them attacking , defending and finally fire ability user kicking sand ability user.
The teacher didn't bother explaining the children, " You should have used more combat techniques to escape the fire than raising sand barriers. You'll practice combat techniques all this week" , he said pointing at sand ability user.
" You did well in using both ability and combat techniques , take the exam to move next floor this week" , the teacher said.
The fire ability user hearing this happily went back to his seat.
And the duels continued on , but the wooden slot started to lighten up of many. They had to return to the testing center. Rest of them quickly went forward to see the remaining floors before their turn would appear and had to return.
" Ruhi did you see? Learn combat techniques seriously in the academy , they are really essential. Come let's go the next floor" , Amogha said.
Ruhi nodded her head seriously after seeing the duel.
Everyone went glancing around quickly to the tenth floor. The duels there were on the next level compared to the lower floors. There were group battles, training excersices done by students. But the wooden slots of everyone were litting up very quickly.
Many returned down after reaching tenth floor as they were not allowed to go to the eleventh floor.
Amogha and Ruhi quickly went to the eleventh floor. Nobody stopped them from going up. Who could stop the owner of the academy from going where she want.
" I can only bring you up here only this time to show you the portal. Next time you have to pass the tenth floor exam" , Amogha said as they reached the eleventh floor on the elevator.
On the eleventh floor there was not much rooms. There was one big door.The guards opened the door as Amogha came in front.
She took Ruhi inside where the same group who welcomed them near the entrance were present with an extra person who was chanting something.
Seeing both Amogha and Ruhi , Meena spoke " You finished showing Ruhi around the academy. The group that entered the portal will be returning now, I should warn you Amogha to take Ruhi away. If you want to show this , I won't stop you"
Ruhi hearing this wanted to stay , as she was curious from vice principal's words.
The wooden slot lit up the same time, as it was time for them to return to the testing center.
Amogha just wanted to show the portal to Ruhi , but if the people who had entered were coming out she definitely didn't want Ruhi to see them. Seeing the wooden slot lit up Amogha, " We have to go to the testing center Ruhi".Both of them went outside. Ruhi kept starring back as the guards started to close the doors, she saw a portal forming through the gap of the doors.
' I'll definitely know what is in there in the future. Now I should do my best ' Ruhi thought as she went down through the elevator.
As Ruhi and Amogha went towards the testing center , from the portal a group of young students came out with cloaks covering all over their body. They were the ones who had wished to join Maurya's army after passing the tenth floor. The group which came out whether male or female had one thing common - their lifeless eyes and the smell of death from every cell of their body. They had experienced something way beyond their minds could handle.
" Ok since it was your first time killing to survive the after effects are happening as a way for your mind to adapt from what you have seen and what you have done. You all have been given a month to recover." , Hari ordered in a military way. He pointed one of the female behind him to use her space ability.
She quickly opened a huge space tear to the dorm area. Although the dorms were minutes away from there , the group was so mentally exhausted they were barely standing. The group quickly entered the space tear getting teleported near the dorm area.
They quickly rushed to their rooms and everyone went straight to bed. Their eyes just closed themselves entering a much required deep sleep.
In the eleventh floor
" This time there are no casualties Principal ." , the person who had been chanting previously spoke to Hari.
His name was Arya , a variant who was a mixture of both space type and unique type. Unlike a normal space type ability user who could teleport far distance , he was able to open a portal to a new world like Libra which had barely any aura filled with monsters.
" You are working tirelessly these days. Take rest for some while, next month another batch of students will be entering the portal. King Maurya has ordered that the number of people entering would increase yet again. Your salary will be tripled for your work", Hari spoke to Arya in a calm voice.
Arya who heard the first part got angered , because more the number of people entering, the more energy he had to spend to keep the portal stable till they enter and once again when they exit.He could just open the portal for a short while and even a increase in the duration of a second , he needed to spend more time to recover. But hearing the latter part of salary his anger melted thinking it's worth it.
Maurya had used Arya's ability to it's best. The border camp students were routinely exposed to killing of beasts , but the academy students just killed occasionally some beasts as academy forced them. The border camp students were more and strong , while the academy students were less and the strongest. So they had to get used to killing others in war better than the border camp students.
Maurya made the academy assign them works near forest border to kill beasts. Still the number of students were way more and this method was inefficient to him.
This is when Arya came into picture with his ability to open portal to a new world filled with monsters. The twist in this was this world had no aura to make use of their magical abilities against these monsters. When Maurya himself entered this place, he had to use only combat techniques to fight the monsters and kill. He couldn't even hide in this place as the monsters there were attracted to him like moths to a light. Day and night only one thing came to mind eat fight kill, kill eat fight , fight kill eat the same repeated everyday. This made him fall in love with this new world.
Once he announced war few years back , he made compulsory to the academy students who joined him to go into this new world and made them stay there for months till he made Arya open the portal again to exit . The students experienced hell in this place. The killing they did , the killing they saw made the students engrave the bloodlust to every cell of their body. The end result was Maurya got new soldiers the way he wanted. This has been going on for years since he announced war , thousands of academy students have entered this place and came out. And still many more to enter. . .
Continued
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Maurya with every chapter is turning more into a ruthless hero or a ruthless villian. Still how far has he gone violent with others. How much more violent is he going to be with Mahi , his only chance to get what he wants?
Only time can answer these questions.